A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Service to release a businessman, Mr. Emeka Ngornadi, who has been arrested and detained by the agency since April 2021, immediately and unconditionally.
This is stated in a decision made by Honourable Justice Maha, who also granted N5 million to Ngornadi as exemplary and compensatory damages.
According to reports, the plaintiff sued the DSS in September 2021 at the Federal High Court in Abuja to uphold his basic human rights. He did this through the representation of attorney Festus Ogun.
Ngornadi pleaded with the court to rule that the DSS’s detention of him and continued detention without a warrant violated his right to personal freedom and liberty.
He also requested that the court rule that his continued detention and physical and mental torture qualified as cruel punishments under Section 34(a) of the Constitution and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act 2004) in the application with the file number FHC/ABJ/CS/994/2021.
Ngornadi also sought for “an order of this honourable court directing the first respondent and second respondent to immediately and unconditionally release the applicant.
“An injunction restraining the respondents whether by themselves, their servants, agents, officers or otherwise howsoever from further arresting and detaining the applicant and constituting a threat or hindrance to the applicant’s life, property, and investments and business in any manner whatsoever.”
In the affidavit supporting his application, it was claimed that Ngornadi was on his way from Lagos to Anambra State in April to meet with his pregnant wife when he was intercepted and arrested at Ore, Ondo State, by DSS officials.
The affidavit also stated that the DSS had detained Ngornadi for about one month in Lagos before he was transferred to Abuja where he was currently being detained.
The affidavit also claimed that Ngornadi was forced and tortured to identify himself as a member of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
Ngornadi’s lawyer, Ogun, while speaking to newsmen on Thursday said the Tuesday judgement was a “victory against tyranny and arbitrary clampdown on citizens liberty.”
He said, “the DSS is now left no other option than to release my client immediately. Indeed, this is a victory over reckless abuse of human rights.”
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